Phil, you're awesome! You are single handedly responsible for my foray into fixing/modding guitars. (This also makes you responsible for the 4 new guitars I own or so I've told my wife.)
I'm so happy that I found this video!!! I bought a strat style guitar for 50 bucks in a pawnshop. It was *ugly* but I took off the neck, cleaned the fretboard, filed and polished the frets and did what I could with the body. At the end, it looked like...not new but like a cool guitar. Then it hit me: the high e-string was barely over the fretboard! I was about to remove the bridge, fill the holes and make new holes to align the bridge! For some reason, before I started doing that, I thought _"I don't think there's another way to fix this but, why not"_ and opened RU-vid and... Man, you saved me so much work and time!! Thank you!!!
And me too! I realize the music must be some royalty free track but I associate it with... Chef John from foodwishes dot com! Well.. Phil and John are both pretty amazing people.
I had brought a Fender SRV loaded body and when I attached a neck, the same thing with the low E string. After the 12th fret, the string was off the frets basically on the nubs. I was going to take it to a Luthier and today lo and behold you pop up with this advise. And it worked. The neck and strings line up perfectly. Thank you.
Depending on which side the misalignment is you can place a shim on the side of the pocket. And then re-tighten the bolts. A piece of sand paper or thick paper will do. I think this will make for more of a permanent solution.
I was just getting ready to re-drill my bridge. I am amazed that this actually worked but it did. Now I know my gear that much more. Thank you very much!
Have seen this quite often on higher end strats as well, especially after shipping to drier or colder environments. Very simple fix as demonstrated here.
God bless you! I have almost sent back my fender pro 2 strat back to shop. Thougt what a hell, doesn't look right. Thanks, you saved my day and my brand new guitar🙂
Literally have been looking at a guitar with this exact problem all week fretting (Pun absolutely intended) about how I can fix it. Glad to see it's significantly less of an issue than i expected!
As a further update this took me about 2 minutes to fix following this video and was an absolute success... The guitar in question is now my new favourite guitar!
I got my new Fender Stratocaster yesterday which was close to $3000. And I was very disappointed that I couldn't play lead with it. I had this problem also with the hight E string. I thought I will have to pay to ship this back to Sweetwater to get fix. Then I found you!! Your video made me smile. I realize that I had hope now thanks to you. Thanks again! Emmett
Listened to your live yesterday, you mentioned this video...my 1 year old MIM Telecaster plays like a new guitar today thanks to this video! As always, thanks Phil!
I have a Fender Jazz Bass. I had the some exact problem. So I used the some fix technique you used on this video. And my Bass is fixed as good as I can get it now, because it was pretty bad. Now It's much, much straighter. Thanks for helping me fix my unaligned Bass.👍
I recently bought a Fender 50s Roadworn Stratocaster with 59 pickups. It sounded great but needed setting up. I love the sound and feel of this guitar! Although I am a player of 41 years experience and am happy to set up my own guitars, I paid a local guitar shop to set it up. They had to remove the neck to adjust the truss rod because it has the truss rod adjustment at the base. I wasn't sure if this was correct, you would obviously know best, but when it was returned, you guessed it, the high E string was almost off the fretboard! The intonation was spot on but neck relief was a little iffy too! The tremolo was floating, but floated a little too much so I adjusted that correctly. I was quite upset about the string alignment but YOU HAVE SOLVED THAT PROBLEM FOR ME. So simple! THANK YOU! Moral of the story - if you want a job doing properly do it yourself - with your help of course!
Ahh I remember having to put new strings on my guitar when they broke, and I believe your videos helped on saving so much trouble! Awesome to see more for ye on the subject
Just got a Squier Paranormal Offset Telecaster in the mail today, and it was having this exact issue. Quick search on Google, this video popped up and I knew I was set. Not even five minutes later, had 'er fixed. Totally on point, Phil! Thanks a million.
Thanks so much for this! I have a beautiful '62 American Vintage Strat reissue from '87, whose high E string was perilously close to the edge of the fretboard after a string change. Never encountered that before. Your tutorial couldn't have been clearer or easier to follow. I've been playing forever but have zero skills in guitar repair. This worked like a charm. Thanks again!
I'll be over in a corner crying for a while. I cannot thank you enough. I just picked up a 2022 Fender Player that I'm madly in love with and noticed the alignment was off and thought I'd have to plug and redrill the holes in the neck. To be fair, I did see this fix on another less popular video first and then came to you to verify that it was legit. I am so freaking happy this worked!!! Thanks so much Phillip! ❤ Fender should put this as standard instruction on every guitar they sell as an option in case of string alignment issues.
Bought an Ibanez RG that was B-Stocked for having this problem. Just under 5 minutes of work and it plays like a dream. Thanks, Phil, for showing me that this is actually a doable repair.
Phil, thank you so much!!!! I received an MIK G&L S-500 Tribute from ebay today, and the neck was slightly misaligned. I had already loosened the screws, but couldn't get it to realign. When you grabbed the headstock of your Squire it proved the old saying of, "Torque wins races!" By applying pressure at the headstock I now have a properly aligned neck, or at least so close that it's not easily noticeable. Thank you again!!!
YOU are such a resource!!! Just bought a American Vintage '51 Tele (that I really couldn't afford) and the high he was almost off the fret edge up high. I took pictures and prepared for the worst..sending back the guitar I loved. Did what you said and as soon as I loosened 1/3 turn on the neck screws, I heard a little pop. Hardly had to put any pressure on the headstock, tightened the screws and VIOLA!!!! Lov ya man!!!!
If this fixes my squier bass vi roll-off issue I will be elated and grateful. What a simple fix! Thank you. I’m changing strings today so I will use this method to realign the string… how cool.
You’re a life/stratsaver. It happened on one of my finer strats years ago and I paid a luthier top dollar to fix it. Now I’m facing the same issue again and was about to sell the guitar. You just prevented that! Thanks!
Nicely done Phil! I've recently purchased a beautiful Squire Thinline that had neck gap and angle issues. I removed the neck and discovered that the neck pocket was uneven. I filed it even with a fine wood file, the wood was really soft and easy to work, periodically checking with calipers that I was approaching true, and now the neck sits snugly and squarely in the pocket.
Just aligned my Japanese made Fender Stratocaster using your video. Now it's perfect!!! Thanks. I was worried about cracking the body neck pocket, especially that thin piece of wood on the high E string, but all good. You're a champ
Of course, the first thing I did after watching this was to look at the neck on my new Squire Telecaster, and sure enough, it was out of alignment to the low E. Fixed it in less than a minute! Thanks, Phil!
Can't believe I came across this video! Bought 3 new Squiers and two of them had the high E string to close to the edge. Lost interest in playing them until I found this fix. You da man!
I know this is is an old post but I just ran a crossed it and it worked great! I didn't know there was that kind of play with a bolted neck. I thought once the neck was bolted on that was it for the alignment. My high E sting was just a little too close and the low E had more room than needed. It centered up nicely using this procedure. Thank you!!!
Thanks Phil! My brand new Fender Vintera 60s tele arrived like this. I was able to move the neck a little back in place - still not perfect - but I'm happy.
I have a Rondo SX Strat past 3 or 4 years had same problem.almost exact.I followed your instructions and in a few minutes had it corrected.thanks you very much.not long ago I fixed real bad sharp fret sprout on my Monoprice Indio strat following your instructions and I'm still grateful on how nice and smooth they are now.I'm learning so much from you Thanks again Jerry
This video was a life saver. I recently bought a new boutique-ish super Strat (3.5k) and it had this same exact issue. Fixed it by following this tutorial. Ended up exchanging the guitar because of some other issues. The second one (3.8k) had the same exact issue but I knew I could fix it! The neck pocket on both guitars were really tight with barely any play but this method still worked with no neck pocket cracks (I was very careful when pulling the head stock). Thanks Phillip!
Just done this on my Squire 70s Classic Vibe Strat. It took about 90 seconds to do and it fixed the problem perfectly. It's easier to bend the top strings now too. Brilliant vid, thanks so much! 👍
I got rid of a Squier because of this problem. I gave the damn thing away. I had taken it to a pretty good repairman I know in Austin, and he said he didn't know any way to fix it. I found it unplayable, so I got rid of it. The experience taught me not to buy mail order guitars from outlets like Amazon, where you can't get any personal sales help. I wish I had seen your video before I got involved with that instrument. I recently bought a guitar from Sweetwater (if I may plug them) and I got a fantastic instrument. One can interact directly with a sales rep at Sweetwater.
Hi, Phil. Great video - I've had this occuring on a few fenders I've owned over the years, but the worst two culprits are a £1500 AV'62 Jag and a £3000 Custom Shop Tele which is about 3 millimetres off - they shouldn't leave the factory in this state of non optimum operation. Anyway, I've followed your instructions and had some success with the Jag - so thank you very much for that - but I would like to reiterate that it is best to not do more than half/ one turn of the screws or the neck will just slip back as you're tightening the screws. Will try this procedure with the Tele and let you know how it's gone.
Thanks, had a build and it was doing the exact same thing.. your steps were simple and detailed so I had no issues following the steps and it corrected mine. Which it was the Low E that was off set.. 😎👍 thanks again..
Well, I'll be damned! I have a $5k+ custom guitar that arrived at my home today with the high E a little out of whack. Don't want to name the builder (EVERYONE would know who this player/builder is), and I was definitely not going to call him up and complain. Was hoping for a quick fix. Phil...you're the man. Thanks!
While watching I went and checked my Squier Bullet Telecaster Limited Edition in Surf Green, to see if my strings were even on the neck and they were not. I was able to fix it and re-tune my guitar and did some slight adjustments on intonation, now it looks and sounds great. Love learning to work on my guitar through your videos, Thanks Phillip!
I have a Levinson Blade RH-4 that's been my main guitar since I bought new in about 2012. It's a very nice guitar. The only thing I haven't liked about it is that the high-E has a tendency to slip off the fretboard. It makes me wary when I'm playing solos, which is obviously not what you want. It kind of took the shine off the guitar for me. I just tried the trick shown in this video and am amazed to find that it's worked. Thanks so much.
I was all set to remove my bridge, plug the holes and re-drill thinking the bridge was slightly off center. Thank you so much for this video. My guitar is perfect now!
THANK YOU! This works on any guitar w/ a bolt on neck... I thought my bridge was mounted off center on my ESP LTD! Line up the center dots with the center strings... another trick.
I was thinking the only way is to move the damn bridge and honestly that was not going to happen. You just saved another perfectly good Fender from it's owner! At least I had the sense to look for answers FIRST.
That was awesome you can add Wolfgang standard to the list since it’s made by fender. I’m happy that’s gonna brother thank you!!!! 🙌🙌🤛 also your the only one I found addressing this issue!
I few years ago I had my tech route my Jackson JS11 for a Floyd Rose, I had this problem when I got it back and it's always upsetted me fearing the route was measured wrong, but since he's a nice guy I just let it slip, just tried this and nailed it, the subtle rearragement really makes all the difference playing high notes. THANK YOU for this video.
Btw I had this on another guitar and tried sticking shims in the sides to fix it, didnt work. Payed another tech $15 for the fix. I wish this video existed then!!!!!
OK, did the procedure and the custom shop tele works just fine now. Can't thank you enough for this. You've saved me stress, frustration (and money), Cheers!
It just worked perfectly! You have saved me from filling and redrilling. I needed to repeat the procedure a couple of times but it ended up perfectly aligned. Thank you very much!!!
Thanks Phil. I have definitely learned a lot of tips and tricks from you. These are get videos and they make fixing issues such as this one a fix a person can do themselves without having to take it in to have it corrected by a tech.
Thank you for the video Phill ! Just bought a Charvel pro mod so cal style 2 in black ash and the high “ E “ kept slipping off the fretboard on the 15th fret ! It took a couple tries but ; she’s working great now ! Fender ( dealers to ) REALLY needs to step up their QC ! Cheers brother ; you ROCK ! 👍👊😉
Wow dude thanks! I have an EVH Wolfgang and it is hard to hammer and pull off the high E String and didn't know why. I'm sure that's the problem and can't wait to try it!
Thanks Phil I just fixed thanks to you 3 cheap Chinese guitars ... they are not illegal fender copies either but all had that same problem and I'd been trying to fix the issue unsuccessfully for about a year ... thanks ever so much phil !!
Great video sir. I'm nervous because I bought a strat online and when I received it, I noticed that the high E strings often slips down the lower frets (1st - 5th frets) and that made me panic because it is a new guitar. Turns out, this might be the current issue and I'm gonna try this method. Thanks
Amazing, thank you so much. Been having this issue for a while now with my treasured 30 year old Levison Blade. Such an easy fix but ever would have though to do this. Thanks again Phil
hi phil ,as a 55 year old beginner guitarist who has given up trying to pay guitar twice but is now determined to learn ,id really like to hear how you started out playing guitar,what problems you hadas a beginner ,how you overcome any problems ,if you took lessons etc.im sure there are thousands of people who give up as although there is a lot of tuition on youtube for beginners none of the good players ever discuss what it was like for them learning.i love all your videos ,obviously dont know you but always look forward to new material from you.i think it would help a lot of newcomers to know they aren't the only ones who have to struggle to learn guitar. dont know if you read all your comments and if you will see this,hopefully you will ! take care terry.
Just had to do this recently on my new Jackson Dinky Pro DK2 hardtail I got lately! Was so glad it was a minor adjustment like this to fix the string alignment.
